Bigger Barbell Pressing – Always Be Learning

Let me just say that you should ALWAYS be learning, or at least OPEN to learning if you are serious about your strength training.

The day you stop learning is the day you stop improving, as far as I am concerned.

I have never had a problem with taking opportunities to learn. I know that I don’t know everything and I go to seminars and clinics all the time.

If you think you know everything, then you probably aren’t putting up much weight in the gym.

However, sometimes it opportunities to learn and improve yourself come up unexpectedly.

I was recently talking with a good friend of mine, Paul Knight. He has one of the best crushing grips in the world and he told me some of the stuff he does in his training.

He incorporates a great deal of volume into his workouts. Volume that is higher than anyone I have ever heard of before, so I ended up applying it to my overhead work for a couple of weeks.

I don’t want to bore you with too much detail, so instead, I will just show you videos.

Here is last week, where I tried 225 for a double.

Miss: 225 X 2, Barbell Press from Rack

Now, I probably could have bent my lumbar spine way back and gotten the second rep, like I used to. But, I don’t force reps like that anymore. It just isn’t something I want to do anymore.

Oh, and by the way, it was less than 40 degrees that day when I was training, thus the ski-mask. The style police from YouTube tried docking me points because of it – Whoopty Doo. What’s next? Chicken leg jokes?

This week, I tried it again and the result was much different.

BAM: 225 X 2, Barbell Press from Rack

Diesels, the only thing I can point to here in regards to this improvement is the higher volume I have been doing. For the last few years, I have rarely gone beyond 3 reps in a set of Barbell Press. Dumbbell Press, yes, but I have never made a habit of it.

All I can say is the last few weeks I have felt stronger than I have in years. I am sure it is a combination of being healthy and finding some lifting strategies that my body is responding to.

It just goes to show you that you don’t always have to work near your 1-Rep Maximum. There is room for lower loads and higher reps. This is something that historically i would have had tunnel vision about and not considered.

Here is a later work-set from the same session where I got 225 for 2. I was doing 175 for sets of 7 up until this point. This was the last set and I decided I would go for a set of 10 and nearly got it.

175 for 10…Almost

Like I said, I have been feeling like a freaking Diesel-Powered Monster the last few weeks. All the big lifts I have been doing feel great and I am very thankful to be seeing these results.

Speaking of being thankful, I was watching a video by one of my idols growing up, Ultimate Warriror, and he said something that really resonated with me about how he encourages people to be thankful for the gains you get.

I know this is a long video…what you want to listen to is the section from 5:27 to 6:00, especially. Check this out:

Seriously, make sure you listen to what he says, DIESELS. He’s not doing an over-the-top wrestling promo. He’s speaking as somebody who has been training his ass off since he was a teenager and is now in his 50’s. This is golden insight from someone who has been tangling with the iron for decades.

As I have mentioned to the people on my Email Newsletter, I am throwing around the idea of putting together some sort of training program or course on Overhead Lifting. If this is something that you’d be interested in, make sure you are signed up for email updates as things progress, and don’t be afraid to leave a comment below.